1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to shipping containers, particularly to shipping containers for new clothing being shipped from manufactures. Such garments, like men""s suits, are usually initially pressed and hung on suit hangers in the factory. When they are shipped, they are shipped on those same hangers, but the hangers are hung from a hanger bar of a hanger bar assembly in a wardrobe carton. These cartons must be loaded with garments as rapidly as possible since it is part of the production process to get them shipped and into the distribution chain. At the same time, it is necessary to avoid wrinkling of the newly pressed garments since unnecessary extra cost would be incurred in re-pressing. Problems usually occur either because the garment hangers come off the hanger bar assembly or because they slide sideways on the hanger bar. Thus the hanger bar assembly in the wardrobe carton is of prime importance since it must have a means to keep the garments secure and evenly spaced on the bar and separated, but at the same to enable rapid loading of the main bar of the hanger bar assembly. Separation is best achieved by groves or slots in the main bar so each hanger will have a home slot. But such grooves or slots in the prior art have interfered with rapid loading because hangers cannot be slid along the bar and thus it is necessary to load the hangers individually or in very small quantities.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The patents to Vosbikian (U.S. Pat. No. 3,633,760) and Collin (U.S. Pat. No. 4,293,076) each disclose a stamped metal channel bar which has end brackets for fitting over the upstanding edges of a wardrobe carton. Each has a locking bar for holding the tops of hangers in place but there is no means for assuring even spacing between the hangers. U.S. Pat. No. 3,902,597 to Brennan also has a metal channel with brackets to support it on a wardrobe carton but in Brennan the main bar has a series of nibs pressed upwardly from the bar to form separator slots for the garment hangers. Such upward projections have been found to prevent a plurality of hangers from being loaded at one time and subsequently being slid along the bar, but are effective to prevent hangers from sliding sideways after they are finally individually positioned.
Fedorchak U.S. Pat. No. 4,760,929 teaches a sleeve-like body emplaceable over a clothes rod and having a series of relatively narrow upwardly projecting partitions to separate hangers. The patent to Mead (U.S. Pat. No. 4,811,853) has a main bar with cut-in slots for hangers and a hold-down bar which is pivoted at the center of the top of the main bar and would thus interfere with sliding of hangers across the top of the main bar.
The present invention is directed to a hanger bar assembly for a garment shipping wardrobe carton, that assembly includes a main bar having a plurality of slots or grooves in the upper surface thereof. That upper flat surface is smooth and planar with a width of about xc2xe of an inch, which is approximately, equal to the width of a flattened area on the upper end of an otherwise arcuately shaped wire hook on a hanger which will be hung from the main bar. The smooth and planar upper surface, along with a spacing between adjacent slots of a width which is at least twice the width (thickness) of a hook wire, makes it easy to slide wire hanger hooks along the main bar so as to distribute the hangers along the main bar with each hook of a group of hangers dropping sequentially into a slot as the group of hanger is slid along the upper surface of the main bar.